Adding your own flavors
Some people just like adding a squeeze of lemon to their tea, but I know theres tons out there who like to kick it up a notch from there. I just added some crush pomegranate seeds to some green tea that I will be cold brewing over night, and I once saw a video of a girl who has a huge Torani syrup collection that she used just for her tea. What kind of flavors do you like to add to your teas? (And I’m not talking about tea blends)
Lavender to a really floral oolong.
Ginger and coriander or just ginger to a black tea (probably my favourite form of chai)
I should probable experiment with some of my fruit syrups, raspberry lime might go nice with some of my teas…..
I have added extracts and liqeuers from time to time.
I probably have every sugar-free Torani syrup they make, which are great for flavoring plain teas and also to enhance dessert teas. (Bacon-flavored Torani and Lapsang Souchong was rather a disappointment, however — win some, lose some! Fortunately, I like LS plain just as well.)
Syrups are wonderful for making matcha lattes too. Sugar-free Torani black cherry hojicha lattes made with skim milk are crazy good and have saved me many calories! You can use whatever degree of flavoring suites your taste.
Culinary lavender and cardamom are nice in tea as well. It’s fun to experiment.
How are the sugar-free syrups? I used to buy Torani syrups to use with my soda stream but I have gone off soda so I don’t use them anymore. I looked at the sugar-free ones but I have always hated diet sodas because of the aspartame and I was worried the syrups would have the same kind of flavor.
Only certain people can’t taste the strange taste that artificial sugars like aspartame have. I did an mini experiment years ago in school in which we discovered which of us could taste the artificial sugar and which of us could not (apparently, it’s genetic). Thus, really it depends on the person and not so much the product itself. I’m one of the lucky few people that cannot taste the strangeness of artificial sugar and also own every sugar-free Torani syrup. They are wonderful! Truly wonderful!
Side note: If you are curious, do a google search for: “Gene for tasting artificial sugar” :)
I quite like Torani’s sugar-free syrups. I avoid aspartame not only because it destroys your gall bladder but because it has a short shelf life in liquid form; suddenly your sweetener is no longer sweet. (It takes awhile to go through a large bottle of syrup!) Torani syrups are sweetened with sucralose (Splenda brand) and last a long, long time. There are some flavors I like better than others (Hazelnut, Salted Caramel and Pumpkin Pie come immediately to mind), and some taste more natural to me than do others, but on the whole I find them pretty tasty, and quite compatible with tea as long as I don’t overdo.
@Tea Pet – That is super interesting! I taste fake sugar quickly and don’t like it, but the beau swears he doesn’t notice it in anything. I always thought he was putting me on, hah.
@Tea Pet – I have actually heard that before. It makes sense too because my family constantly tells me that sodas don’t taste like aspartame and then I try it out and am not at all impressed with the taste. I always assumed it was because they were used to the taste and thus didn’t notice. I figured since I hated it so much that I picked up on it more but I suppose what you said can also explain that phenomenon.
The only time I’ve added things to tea was to mask the flavour of a really terrible tea that I wanted to finish instead of throwing out.
Example: David’s Gingerbread Rooibos tea. That stuff’s god-awful. So when I make a cup I add in 6 cloves (3 crushed, 3 whole), about 1/4" of crushed cinnamon stick, some maple agave, and some ground nutmeg. Makes it palatable.
My general rule of thumb is that I spend enough on tea; I shouldn’t HAVE to spend more money on my own pantry of stuff just to make a tea good. If it’s not good on its own, then I don’t get more than a sample of it.
That being said…I have a ridiculous “coffee accessories” pantry at home with syrups coming out the wazoo to go with my espresso/cappuccino maker.
Well I’m talking more about flavoring “plain” base teas like black tea or rooibos tea.
But…if I didn’t like it plain, why would I spend more money on “extras” when I could have just bought it that way? lol
To me, coffee is different. Flavoured coffee tastes like garbage. But plain coffee with flavoured syrup added is awesome. Tea, on the other hand is good plain (once you find a “plain” tea that you like; not everyone likes all “plain” teas) and good with random flavouring “stuff” added in. Coffee grinds I’ll spend extra $$ for fun flavours. Tea? Not so much.
I’ve tried adding coconut and candied ginger, but was disappointed when I compare my results to commercial blends.
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